Visiting the Holocaust memorial in Berlin

Just back from Berlin I’d like to share with you a photo from the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, which we visited while we were there. The thing I liked about the memorial was the way that children were interacting with it, dodging in between the dark concrete blocks, playing hide and seek or just finding a quiet place to play.

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From the edge the memorial looks just like a sea of blocks, all in straight lines, but as you walk into the centre, you find that the ground drops downwards, and the blocks become taller, so that they loom menacingly over your head. The ground undulates in an unsettling way and you can walk through to the other side until you emerge again with relief and can see the world around you again. But most children didn’t seem to feel the darker side – they were just having fun.

It reminded me of a formal topiary garden where you can slip in between the dark cypress in a game of now you see me, now you don’t. I also saw many teenagers climbing on top of the blocks to jump from one to the other and get a good view. Some people might find this disrespectful, as if you are jumping on the graves of all the Jews who died in the Holocaust. I felt that it was a sign that the memorial was engaging the imagination of the visitor, reaching out to them on different levels, the emotional as well as the intellectual.

What do you think – should we be respectful or playful in a place that commemorates such a dark part of humanity’s history?

Holocaust Memorial, Stresemannstrasse 90 10963 Kreuzberg, Berlin Nearest Station; Potsdamer Platz, Free to visit.

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This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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